Wichita

More than just a road, Kellogg is a major landmark, separating the main downtown and upscale districts of central and northern Wichita from the aviation plants and blue-collar neighborhoods that lie “south of Kellogg.”

A group of young adults in Wichita has created an initiative to help promote the city as a cultural and commercial destination.

The project is called From Wichita With Love and was created by a group of local friends. After attending a conference, the group was inspired to come up with innovative ways to attract attention to Wichita.

They designed a retro-inspired postcard and last week distributed thousands of them to area shops, bars and venues.

Back in the days before we live on 5-hour Energy drinks, triple-shot Starbucks lattes and the irresistible urge to text while we drive, we were sometimes willing to wait a bit in order to obtain something worthwhile.

I was recently reminded of some of Wichita’s visionary leaders of the past as I drove down Kellogg. I’m talking about the kind of leadership that concerns itself more with the long-term public good instead of handing out quick-fix, instantly gratifying lollipops like tax cuts and such.

In his State of the City Address Tuesday night, Mayor Carl Brewer said despite being challenged by dwindling revenues and continuing obligations, Wichita is healthy, focused and moving forward.

Mayor Brewer addressed a full house downtown at City Hall. He said Wichita continues to stabilize through a new way of thinking - a thinking that demands the “right” solutions rather than the easy ones.

As this season of joy and peace falls upon the earth; as the winter snowflakes silently drift downward, ever downward toward the frosty ground; as Santa descends chimney after chimney, falling with his presents into millions of homes, it’s nice to think that there are a few things that are going up instead of down.

City Hall has a presentFor each Wichita peasantIn the December chillThey’re raising your billLiving in a water wonderland

Greetings from The Land That Time Forgot, also known as Wichita, Kansas. We’ve been a little slow to accept some of them new-fangled things that other towns have had for years. Take bicycles, for instance. We weren’t too sure they’d catch on so we waited a while. Then the other day I noticed an actual bike lane on First Street in the College Hill area. Right there against the curb was the white outline of a bicycle indicating a bike lane. At first I thought it was a crime scene. Like on TV where the police draw a chalk outline around the victim, in this case a bicycle.